‘Suicide tourism’ in Switzerland doubles in three years

The number of seriously ill foreigners using Swiss medical facilities for voluntary euthanasia doubled between 2009 and 2012, according to a new study. The rising numbers have sparked a discussion of new euthanasia laws in the “tourists’” own countries.

In total, 611 foreign citizens died between 2008 and 2012, the
period covered by the paper just published in the Journal of
Medical Ethics. All but four were assisted with their suicide at
the Dignitas Clinic, which charges about $10,000 for the
procedure, and the vast majority used sodium pentobarbital – the
same drug used during executions in the US.

Nearly half the patients were from Germany, a fifth from the UK
and just under ten percent from France. All three countries do
not officially endorse assisted suicide on their own territory,
but the increasing profile of Dignitas has made each a hotbed of
legal and ethical debate on the issue.

“The first is the liberalization of public opinion that comes
naturally, if irrationally with familiarity. And the second is
the slowly growing public acknowledgement that there is something
intellectually, if not morally, uncomfortable, about getting
another country to do your dirty work,” wrote Charles Foster
a law academic at Oxford University, in the commentary
accompanying the article.

A survey conducted throughout 12 major EU states last year,
showed that in every single one, the majority population has come
to believe that voluntary euthanasia for those who are seriously
ill should be allowed.

Largely as a result of the public debate in the past decade, the
Assisted Dying Bill passed through the first hurdle in the House
of Lords in the UK last month, though it will not come into force
until next year at the earliest, after having gone through
several more filters.

Bills to discourage assisted suicide were also shelved in Germany
two years ago, while in France debate continues on the
introduction of more pro-euthanasia legislation that was promised
by Francois Hollande prior to his election as president.

The study shows that nearly half of those who died at Dignitas
were suffering from serious neurological conditions – such as
paralysis, Parkinson’s or ALS – and nearly two in five were
diagnosed with cancer. A third of the patients simultaneously
suffered from two or more grave afflictions.

The average age of the patients was 69, and three out of every
five were women. Even if there is little liberalization of
suicide legislation elsewhere in Europe, Switzerland is still
likely to be a haven for those who want to die without placing
their close ones and doctors at risk of criminal prosecution.
Attempts to tighten up the legislation have been roundly rejected
by legislative assemblies in the country.

The Netherlands, Belgium and Luxemburg have the most
pro-euthanasia legal system in the world. While in Switzerland
and elsewhere, the patient must voluntarily administer the deadly
agent at the final stage, in the Benelux this can be done by a
physician, providing certain criteria of consent are met. About 3
percent of all deaths in the Netherlands are the result of
euthanasia.